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VI UPDATE U.S. Virgin Islands Public Records TRANSCRIPT OF PUBLIC PROCEEDINGS | Committee on Finance pt.3 Legislature USVI August 15, 2022 · 2.2 hours · gov Source recording https://youtu.be/dYLZJ_p2C4U Status This is a working transcript produced by machine from a recording of a public proceeding. It is a finding aid, not an official record of the Legislature. Transcribed by VI Update, using OpenAI Whisper large-v3-turbo, run locally. Not reviewed by a person. Reliability Automatic transcription, UNVERIFIED. Verify every quotation against the recording before relying on it. Speech recognition splits spoken digits and wraps figures mid-number, so a dollar amount, a vote count or a bill number can be wrong in a way that reads as correct. Speakers are not identified: automatic speaker labelling was measured unusable and removed. Public record The underlying proceeding is a public record of the Legislature of the Virgin Islands. 3 V.I.C. § 881(a) defines public records to include all records and documents of or belonging to this Territory or any branch of government, or any "department, board, council or committee of any branch of government" · which names legislative committees by category. § 881(b) gives every citizen the right to examine and copy such records, and the news media the right to publish them. (The open-meetings chapter, 1 V.I.C. § 254, does NOT reach the Legislature: § 253(b) expressly excludes it and its Standing and Special Committees. § 881 does, and it is § 881 that confers the right to copy and publish.) The Legislature broadcast this proceeding publicly itself. The source recording is not ours, is not hosted here, and remains with its publisher at the link above. Rights To what we added · the transcription, its arrangement and its description · we assert nothing. A verbatim transcript is mechanical rather than authored, so there is likely nothing in it to own; to the extent any copyright is nonetheless found to subsist, it is dedicated to the public domain under CC0 1.0. Please copy it, quote it, index it, train on it, republish it, mirror it, sell it. Redistribution is the point: a public record with one copy is one fire from gone. No permission is needed, and none is ours to grant or withhold. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. Thank you. Let's get started. Let's get started. Thank you. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. The Committee of Finance is back on the record. 0:00:00 Next before us we have the Law Enforcement Planning Commission. We will allow Angela Lloyd Campbell, I got scared there for a minute because it disappeared and I looked up and I see all females, I was like, hmm, something is wrong. I would appreciate it back, thank you. 0:04:16 So we'll have Ms. Angela Lloyd-Campbell put her name and title on the record, and then those individuals that are here with her to provide questions or answers. So Ms. Campbell, you may proceed. Thank you, Senator. Good afternoon. Angela Lloyd-Campbell, Director, Law Enforcement Planning Commission. Sorry. Thank you so much. Next, Ms. Simmons. Good afternoon. Kinuma Simmons-Esanison. Anna Maria Kriki. One minute. And position, title. 0:04:46 Federal Programs Coordinator. Okay. Anna Maria Kriki, Grants Manager. Okay. Sherry Abbott, Grants Manager. Thank you. Avril Charles, Director of Financial Management Services. Thank you. Jacqueline Freeman, Grants Manager. Okay, you may proceed, Ms. Campbell. A most pleasant day, Chairman Honorable Court A. Viola and members of the Committee on Finance, other members present of the 34th Legislature, Legislative Staff, and to the ladies and gentlemen joining us in the listening and viewing audience. I am Angela Lloyd Campbell, Director of the Law Enforcement Planning Commission, also known as LEPC. LEPC team members in attendance are Avril Charles, our Director of Financial Management Services, Kanuma Simmons, Federal Programs Coordinator, Anna Maria Kricke, Grants Manager for the Edward Byrne Justice Assistance Grant, the Prison Rape Elimination, Residential Substance Abuse Treatment, and the Coronavirus Emergency Supplemental Funding. Sherry Abbott, our Victim Services Grant Manager, and Jacqueline Freeman, Juvenile Justice Programs and Project Safe Neighborhoods Grant Manager. Thank you for the opportunity to appear before this legislative body to present the Law Enforcement Planning Commission's budget for fiscal year 2023. The Law Enforcement Planning Commission, easily referred to as LEPC, was established as an agency 0:05:14 Machine transcript · UNVERIFIED. Verify every quotation against the recording. Speakers are not identified. VI Update · usvipublicrecords.com · public record, no rights asserted (CC0 1.0) 1 of 18 Legislature USVI · | Committee on Finance pt.3 of the government of the Virgin Islands under Title III, Chapter 15, Section 261. LEPC is entrusted with responsibility and empowered to affect the functions and responsibilities provided under the provisions of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 and the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 1974 as amended. LEPC serves as a state administrative agency for the awarding of federal funds allocated for local criminal justice agencies, non-profit, and faith-based organizations. It is authorized to administer and monitor several U.S. Department of Justice federal grant programs that address criminal justice, juvenile delinquency, and victim services initiatives. LEPC has the statutory responsibility of providing advice and guidance to the governor and is established to be the state planning agency for the criminal justice system in the territory. This responsibility encompasses assistance with the development of policies, crime prevention, and violence reduction plans, addressing juvenile delinquency and victims of crime programs, and providing funding directed at improving the coordination, administration, and effectiveness of the criminal justice efforts in the territory. In a nutshell, LEPC bridges together local and federal resources to comprehensively reduce crime, violence, and delinquency within the territory. Our team continues to demonstrate sincere commitment in an effort to deliver quality services that improve and strengthen the criminal justice system within the scope of the allotted resources. We continue to reassess our work and delivery and seek guidance and technical assistance whenever necessary. We strive to maintain constant communications with our collaborators, our sub-grantees, partner agencies to optimize law enforcement and criminal justice efforts. We are broadening funding opportunities and moving away from the established funding of the years past. I present our budget overview. LEPC receives its operation funding through appropriations from the General Fund. In addition, four of the eight formula grants we receive provide funding to support partial administrative and personal costs associated with the management of those respective grants. 0:07:15 The general fund allotment for fiscal year 2023 is $687,480, a decrease of $97,855 compared to fiscal 2022. This reduction represents 14% of the recommended budget, which reflects the salaries of positions that were vacant at the onset of the budget call process. However, those positions have been filled. Personnel costs are submitted at $372,834 for fiscal year 2023 with associated fringe costs of $163,206. The personnel costs reflect salaries of seven positions. The personnel or fringe benefit costs for the VOCA VAWA grant manager are the only personnel-related costs within the agency not reflected as this position is 100% federally funded. 0:09:24 It is our hope that this position may be absorbed by the general fund, thereby recommitting the funds for victim service programs directly. There is a budget reduction of $69,000 in personnel and $31,529.10 in fringe due to the positions being vacant, as I stated earlier, at the beginning of the budget cycle. These positions are filled. Therefore, we would like to request that a budget be approved for the entire personal cost for those individuals. LEPC maintains two offices, one in the St. Thomas St. John District and one in the St. Croix District. The St. Thomas office serves as our base with the St. Croix serving as a satellite office to host our St. Croix staff and where full staff conducts meetings with our St. Croix subgrantees and other stakeholders. We are pleased to share the addition of our federal programs coordinator who sits in the St. Croix office which now provides a presence on the island of St. Croix. 0:10:24 For fiscal year 2023, $20,897 has been allocated for operating supplies, small equipment, fuel, and repairs, and maintenance. This is a significant contrast to last year's allotment of $507. Last year's bare-bones budget for supplies was submitted due to our hardline decision to budget for a second much-needed vehicle for the agency. Other services such as rent, communication, inter-island travel, vehicle maintenance, training, and janitorial services, and utilities has been allotted a total of $130,543. LEPC utilizes allowable administrative funds from four grant programs to secure allowable supplies, services, and other operating costs. 0:11:24 General Fund Budget Summary is noted in the table below as our Exhibit 1, and also attached is the Personal Cost Summary included as Exhibit 2. As noted earlier, we currently are leasing two office spaces. The St. Thomas Office is located in the Niske Shopping Center, and the St. Croix Office is housed within the Department of Licensing and Consumer Affairs at the Golden Rock Shopping Center in St. Croix. The St. Thomas office lease agreement with St. Thomas Properties at an annual cost of $56,484 expired May 2022. We are in the process of renewing the lease with the expectation of maintaining the annual rental cost of $56,484 for fiscal year 2023. 0:12:20 The St. Croix office lease agreement with the Department of Licensing at an annual cost of six thousand is open-ended our office rental information is also contained within as appendix one in the last budget hearing we were in the process of relocating our st. Thomas office since then we remain at Niske Center location with a new address however as suite 720 our janitorial service is contracted and provided at an annual cost of eight thousand six hundred and ninety two dollars and this is also due to expire in september of 2022 currently we are in the bidding process as per property and procurement procedures and the information relative to the janitorial information is appendix two our vehicle fleet lepc has one assigned vehicle a 2017 chevrolet traverse located in the St. Thomas St. John District to augment all the activities at the agency. This vehicle is used to attend meetings, trainings, conduct sub-grantee monitoring visits, site visits, 0:13:13 Machine transcript · UNVERIFIED. Verify every quotation against the recording. Speakers are not identified. VI Update · usvipublicrecords.com · public record, no rights asserted (CC0 1.0) 2 of 18 Legislature USVI · | Committee on Finance pt.3 juvenile compliance, and it also doubles at the director's assigned vehicle. There is no vehicle assigned to the St. Croix office. When transportation is needed, we use loaner vehicles that are requested from the property and procurement transportation fleet. in the last budget hearing funding was requested to purchase the second vehicle we were unable to procure the vehicle that was budgeted for in fiscal 2022 due to the funds that lepc allocated not being sufficient to purchase said vehicle lepc received an initial quote at the amount of 31 980 and requested a discount was a we were able to get 980 off due to the limited funds in our budget we are unable to relocate any money to cover the difference of a thousand so efforts are ongoing to secure the second vehicle for the agency the information related to the vehicle fleet is appendix three lepc may very well mirror those sorry the needs of lepc may very well mirror the needs of other central governmental agencies as it relates to funding and staffing however because we are undeniably such a small agency the needs are magnified and therefore at a critical level we are currently a staff of seven doing the work of staff twice its size a significant boost to the fiscal 2023 budget would allow lepc to maintain our grant manager and secure three much needed positions lepc will be able to re-establish the necessary financial specialist position which was removed from our fiscal 2021 budget at present our office is operating with a fiscal staff of one strong but we cannot continue to function in this manner it is not in the best interest of the current employee nor the agency to work under these conditions for an extended period without expecting an adverse effect lepc would also be able to transfer our vocal of our grant manager to the federal sorry to the general fund thus providing job security to a very reliable and dedicated employee additionally we would be able to establish program monitors who will provide 0:14:39 support to our grant managers in the management and monitoring of the federal grant programs currently each of our grant managers are responsible for two or more grants as a state administering agency, these positions are indeed critical in the management of the federal dollars entrusted to the agency. Apart from providing essential staffing positions, funding will ensure LEPC's ability to meet some of its basic operating costs and to put to rest the Robin Peter to pay Paul cycle. This current year LEPC experienced challenges meeting some operational costs which affected basic needs such as inter-island travel, maintenance repairs and incidentals. For those that are familiar with LEPC we are best described as a funding source for community programs and we are pleased to be that resource to ensure that much-needed support is available for criminal justice, crime prevention, juvenile delinquency, and victim service programs. But we must clarify that the support from this office does not come in the form of sponsorship but as reimbursable grant awards programs that have been approved for funding must submit to an application process and meet certain criteria and be responsive to the scope of the federal programs as the state administering agency on behalf of the territory lepc's awarded federal formula grants from the u.s department of justice which support crime reduction initiatives juvenile delinquency crime prevention and victim service programs formula grants are federal grants where the enacting legislation specifies how those grants are to be distributed therefore they are not competitive with allocations primarily awarded based on the territory's population currently we are managing eight formula grants they are the coronavirus Emergency Supplemental Funding, the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant, JAG, 0:16:39 the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Title II Grant, JJDP, Prison Rape Elimination Act, known as PREA, Project Safe Neighborhoods, PSN, Residential Substance Abuse Treatment Grant, RSAT, Victims of Crime Assistance Grant, VOCA, and the Violence Against Women Stop Grant, on the VAWA. The agency was awarded $2,265,604 for fiscal year 2021, and for fiscal 2022, we are anticipating receiving approximately $2,050,000. The Corona Aid, Relief, and Economic Securities Act provided the territory with $2,932,867 through the Coronavirus Emergency Supplemental Funding grant. This grant assists with preventing, preparing for, and responding to the coronavirus pandemic. Allowable projects and purchases under this grant include but are are not limited to overtime equipment, including law enforcement and medical personnel protective equipment, hiring, supplies, training, travel expenses, and addressing the medical needs of inmates in state, local, tribal prisons, jails, and detention centers. LEPC distributed personnel protective equipment to 22 projects under the CSF funding for the St. Thomas, St. John and St. Croix districts due to the COVID-19 pandemic. These projects afforded governmental agencies and non-profit organizations to obtain personnel protective equipment for their first responders and service providers such as surgical masks, KN95 masks, gloves, coveralls, 0:18:41 face shields, and sanitizers. In addition to the PPE sub-awards, the CFSF grant also supported major projects to address the response to COVID-19. In fiscal 2021, the Virgin Islands Superior Court Project installed thermal screening stations throughout its territorial facilities. During fiscal 2022, the Department of Planning and Natural Resources Division of Environmental Enforcement was awarded $321,832 to secure equipment for their Marine Patrol and Enforcement Project. 0:20:36 The Justice Assistance Grant, JAG, is a federal criminal justice funding which provides support to a broad range of activities geared at increasing law enforcement efforts to preventing and controlling crime through hiring of additional 0:21:13 Machine transcript · UNVERIFIED. Verify every quotation against the recording. Speakers are not identified. VI Update · usvipublicrecords.com · public record, no rights asserted (CC0 1.0) 3 of 18 Legislature USVI · | Committee on Finance pt.3 personnel, equipment, supplies, contractual support, training, technical assistance, and informational systems for criminal justice. In the Virgin Islands, agencies such as the Department of Justice, the Police Department, and the Bureau of Corrections have been recipients of this ideal funding and supported several projects such as training, acquiring technical assistance, hiring of personnel, and the purchase of routine and specialized law enforcement equipment. In fiscal 2021, LEPC awarded $211,041 of JAG funds to governmental agencies, and to date for fiscal 2022, approximately $364,027 has been awarded to support governmental enforcement and crime prevention efforts to the Office of the Governor's Security Unit, Department of Licensing and Consumer Affairs, and the Bureau of Corrections. Burn Jack funding also supports the implementation and enhancement of juvenile and after-school programs aimed at reducing and addressing juvenile delinquency and providing healthier alternatives to at-risk youths in the Virgin Islands. 0:21:58 During the height of the coronavirus pandemic, funding awards for juvenile and after-school programs were suspended for a season. Once we resumed, we worked with our service providers to ensure that they were providing programs in adherence with the established COVID protocols in the territory. In fiscal 2021, we awarded eight awards, totaling $220,000 for Youth Enrichment and Juvenile Justice Program. And thus far for fiscal 2022, four programs have been awarded in the amount of $139,992. Our recipients are the Boys and Girls Club of St. John and St. Thomas, the Virgin Islands Resource Center for the Disabled, and My Brother's Workshop. 0:22:44 Our Juvenile Justice Delinquency Prevention Title II Program supports the development of initiatives that address juvenile delinquency and efforts to improve the juvenile system in the territory this grant requires the establishment of a juvenile justice state advisory group sag it's also known as board whose primary function is to review the state of the juvenile's justice system and advise the governor and the legislature and key stakeholders with recommendations. The Juvenile Justice SAG Board is allotted 5% of the JJDP funds to support those efforts. In addition to implementing youth-centered programs, LEPC is also tasked with monitoring of jails, detention facilities, and other facilities to ensure compliance with the four core requirements of the Juvenile Justice Delinquency Prevention Act. The first core requirement is referred to as the de-institutionalization of status offenders, also known as DSO. And per JJDP's act, DSO requires the status offenders are not held in secure detention or confinement. The second core requirement is a separation of juveniles from adults in institutions, and it requires that when youths are detained or confined for any length of time, both sight and sound contact with adult inmates are prohibited. The third core requirement is the removal of juveniles from adult jails and lockups, and as per the JJDP Act, youth may not be detained in adult jails or lockups. 0:23:29 The fourth core requirement is the reduction of racial and ethnic disparities, also referred to as RED or RED. For this requirement, states and territories are required to assess and address the racial and ethnic disparities, formerly known as the disproportionate minority contact, at key contacts, key points in the juvenile justice system, from arrest to detention to confinement. The Virgin Islands is in compliance with three of the core requirements, DSO, jail removal, and RED. We were out of compliance with the separation requirement because juveniles were sight and sound of an adult detainee. Currently, however, compliance concerns were addressed and the Virgin Islands is in compliance with the core requirements. The JJDP Act was substantially amended and became the Juvenile Justice Reform Act in 2019. In part, the new rule requires changes in the structure of the State Advisory Board, in addition to close monitoring of the now stringent requirements for detaining juvenile offenders who have violated a court order. We are pleased to note that the Virgin Islands Justice Assistance State Advisory Group boasts a full complement of members that satisfies the JJDP requirements. 0:25:04 The VI SAG board has 17 members and they meet regularly. Working groups within the board have been formed to address key areas such as compliance monitoring, racial and ethnic disparities, restorative justice, the three-year plan, and outreach efforts. The SAG Board continues to receive ongoing technical assistance and training from the U.S. Department of Justice. The SAG Board, after identifying areas that needed to be addressed from the OJGP standpoint, formed several committees to brainstorm and address those areas immediately these concerns included restorative justice and racial and ethnic disparities through these efforts meetings were held and best practices were identified that are used throughout the nation in addition a red plan is currently being developed for the territory the prison rape elimination act the golden objective of the prison rape elimination act grant program is to eradicate prisoner rape of all types in the virgin islands correctional facilities and to provide staffing training and education to inmates with priya funding the vi bureau of corrections has provided training to staff and management in combatant sexual abuse in the local facilities priya also encourages the development of policies and procedures on safety and zero tolerance regarding sexual abuse and sexual harassment and education LEPC is preparing to award the Virgin Islands Bureau of Corrections in the amount of $30,530 to support PREA-related trainings and assessments. 0:26:26 Our Project Safe Neighborhoods. This program is a nationwide initiative that brings together federal, state, local enforcement officials, prosecutors, community leaders, and other stakeholders to identify the most pressing violent crime 0:28:07 Machine transcript · UNVERIFIED. Verify every quotation against the recording. Speakers are not identified. VI Update · usvipublicrecords.com · public record, no rights asserted (CC0 1.0) 4 of 18 Legislature USVI · | Committee on Finance pt.3 problems in a community and to afford the opportunity to develop comprehensive solutions to address them. PSN is on a new charge of fostering trust and legitimacy in our communities, supporting community-based organizations that help prevent violence from occurring in the first place and setting focused and strategic enforcement priorities and measuring the results of those efforts. In the territory, PSN is a collaborative effort between the U.S. Attorney's Office, the PSN Board, and LEPC. This program is coordinated by the U.S. Attorney's Office and LEPC functions as the fiscal agent. In the Virgin Islands, the PSN Board is comprised of federal and local partners, housing communities, businesses, youth organizations, and other stakeholders along with LEPC. This board meets regularly to discuss potential projects and initiatives. Locally, the program has partnered with other community programs and conducted awareness and crime prevention activities. PSN continues to work with all stakeholders as they provide services to the residents within the housing and other communities. They are known for meeting with residents in their communities to address issues facing them on a day-to-day basis. These concerns are then brought to the appropriate agencies for resolution. We recently submitted our fiscal 2022 PSN solicitation and anticipate an award later in this year. The Residential Substance Abuse Treatment Grant for state prisoners programs and states local governments i'm sorry and local governments in the development and implementation of residential substance abuse treatment programs within correctional and detention facilities the goal and objective of the rsat program is to break the cycle of drugs and violence in prison systems thereby reducing the demand for use and trafficking of illegal drugs resulting in the reduction in the rate of recidivism the rsat program provides residential substance abuse treatment for incarcerated inmates individuals are prepared for their reintegration into their communities by incorporating re-entry planning activities in the into the treatment programs 0:28:55 Again, we are in the process of issuing a pending award to our Bureau of Corrections for a Substance Abuse Reentry Program in the amount of $99,894. Our Victim Service Grants. Victims of Crime Assistance and Violence Against Women STOP grants support direct services and programs which assist individuals whose lives had been impacted by crime. Some services in the territory are primarily provided by nonprofit organizations, and most of these organizations in large part rely on the VAWA and VOCA awards to support their operations. Although both the VOCA and VOCA programs support direct services, it must be noted that the Victims of Crime funds are more general in nature and therefore serve all victims of crime. The Violence Against Women funds received in the territory are particularly concerned with specific crimes that are committed such as domestic violence, sexual assault, dating violence and stalking. Based on the trend of the past three years, we anticipate receiving approximately $1.4 million annually between both grants. The Victims of Crime grant is awarded to the Territory from the Office of Victims of Crime, and this funding comes from the Crime Victim Fund, which was established by the VOCA Act to support victim services and training for advocates and professionals. Crime Victim Fund dollars are derived from criminal fines, forfeited bail bonds, penalties, and special assessment collected by federal courts, the U.S. Attorney's Offices, and the Federal Bureau of Prisons from offenders convicted of federal crimes. The VOCA funding supports direct services 0:30:51 and in the territory in fiscal 2021, A total of $944,108.59 were awarded to four local programs. Thus far, for fiscal 2022, a total of $1,044.71 actively support four local programs, the Family Resource Center, Legal Services of the Virgin Islands, the Women's Coalition of St. Croix, and the Virgin Islands Advocate for Children. 0:32:42 To date, VOCA programs have served 1,547 individuals compared to 2,012 individuals in fiscal 2021. Most recently, an attorney from the legal services of the Virgin Islands attended and participated in the 2022 International Conference on Sexual Assault, Domestic Violence and Reimagining Justice in San Francisco, California, which was sponsored by the End Violence Against Women International in April 2022. This training event was made possible through VOCA funds. The funding supported training on sexual assault, intimate partner violence, stalking, human trafficking, and elder abuse. The conference highlighted promising practices and emergent issues to effectively respond to these crimes. Our VAWA-STAP funds in the Territory are awarded through the Office on Violence Against Women, which is a component of the U.S. Department of Justice. VAWA-STAP funds are awarded to develop and to strengthen the criminal justice system's response to violence against women and to support and enhance services for victims. Fiscal 2021 awards totaling $524,453, supported non-profit programs and governmental agencies to address victim service needs, provide training opportunities. 0:33:12 For Fiscal 2022, we have awarded VAWA STOP funds totaling $510,470 to support six programs, three local programs to provide direct services to victims, two batterer intervention programs, and one program to provide training to law enforcement. The recipients of those funds are Family Resource Center, the Family Resource Center's Men Terminating Violence Group, Legal Services of the Virgin Islands, Men's Coalition of the Virgin Islands, Women's Coalition of St. Croix, and the Virgin Islands Police Department. 0:34:44 Machine transcript · UNVERIFIED. Verify every quotation against the recording. Speakers are not identified. VI Update · usvipublicrecords.com · public record, no rights asserted (CC0 1.0) 5 of 18 Legislature USVI · | Committee on Finance pt.3 To date, the VAWA program has served 123 individuals compared to 240 individuals in fiscal 2021. Most recently, Legal Services of the Virgin Islands attorneys and members of the VI police department's domestic violence unit as well as victim advocates attended and participated in the 17th annual conference on crimes against women in dallas texas this training event was made possible through the VAWA stop funds providing training on investigating crimes against women such as domestic violence sexual assault human trafficking and strangulation it focused also on a community coordinated response the law enforcement planning commission has completed and submitted the violence against women's stop formula grant implementation plan for 2022 to 2025 in june of this year this plan which is designed as a four-year plan covering fiscal years 2022 to 2025 was developed through the input gathered from private non-profit victim service programs law enforcement, prosecutorial personnel, court, and other participating stakeholders. The overall goals of the plan are to enhance services in the territory within our victim service providers and partner agencies, as well as training opportunities to improve our criminal justice system's response to devour-related crimes. LEPC is awaiting approval of this plan from the Office on Violence Against Women. Our VOCA and VAWA funds have made it possible for victims of crime, particularly domestic violence and sexual assault victims, to seek shelter and needed services as a direct result of their victimizations. 0:35:21 While significant awards have been made to support the work of victim service providers, we continue to seek organizations willing to provide court-ordered diversion or similar programs that meet the VAWA and VOCA requirements. Unfortunately, significant amounts of VAWA and VOCA funds go unexpended due in part to strict and narrow guidelines but mostly due to a lack of eligible programs in the territory. LAPC recently released requests for proposals under the VAWA and the VOCA Assistance Program and received 10 responses. The review is in process with potential awards being made in September for the upcoming fiscal year of 2023. 0:37:15 A list of our active grants is also included as Appendix 4. LEPC is recognized for its community support and involvement. We collaborate with service providers, the local law enforcement entities, other stakeholders within the criminal justice arena, and those that lend to the work that must be ongoing for ultimately safer communities. The collection of data and statistical information is of great significance not only to LEPC but to the entire community as we have either been directly or indirectly by some level of crime. Access to statistical information is a critical component in the submission of grant awards that could increase funding opportunities. Likewise crime analysis has become an essential tool in criminal justice efforts to enhance public safety, identify emerging trends, and plan crime prevention strategies. There is no central repository or clearinghouse for criminal data here in the territory, and presently one must contact an array of agencies and entities to obtain necessary data. LEPC understands the importance of collaboration and information sharing between stakeholders. We took the lead in applying for a three-year competitive grant to secure a statistical analysis center to serve at this criminal justice state repository. We are hoping in the future that LEPC can house such a center, a statistical analysis center. As I close, I would like to take this opportunity to publicly thank the LEPC team for their support and dedication to this agency. LEPC's success is directly attributed to their tireless efforts and resourcefulness, positive attitudes and willingness to go the extra extra mile and stay the course. Their commitment to this agency and indirectly to the government of the Virgin Islands and our community as a whole is unparalleled. 0:38:00 Senators, the Law Enforcement Planning Commission is a small agency that provides unsurpassed support within the community through funded projects and programs. We are here and will continue its efforts to provide to improve public safety in territory by supporting worthwhile projects and programs supporting programs serving our communities making a difference i thank you for the opportunity to have appeared before you today and my team and i are available to answer your questions thank you thank you for your testimony colleagues we are going to go directly into a rung of question and we'll begin with a five-minute round starting with senator blyton senator blyton you recognize thank you so much mr chair good afternoon good afternoon to director yes senator is campbell go ahead campbell good afternoon to your supporting team there we are thank you so much for that pretty good testimony let me ask you on before I go any place on the appendix four with a different federal grants on the last column that says total that the amount awarded for all of those different categories come to those grants I'm sorry could you repeat that you said appendix four the appendix for the the total that the amount awarded um for each of the different um grantees no sir that indicates the amount that we were awarded that's the awarded amount to the territory okay so my question is um 0:39:52 for instance for the coronavirus emergency supplemental funding program do we know how much of that those funds have been expended thus far certainly sir and then also give me the same amount for the edward bryan memorial justice justice assistant grant the jack grant once i've been awarded as far how much have been expended as far okay miss charles will answer that for you i want to go down the list because i want to assure that we are using those funds and I'm sure that not a penny goes back to the federal government because I note and realize that the $14 million that you have gotten in federal funds, it goes far to assist all people here in the territory and I appreciate the work that LEPC does in the communities. I just want to assure that these funds are being utilized. 0:41:40 Machine transcript · UNVERIFIED. Verify every quotation against the recording. Speakers are not identified. VI Update · usvipublicrecords.com · public record, no rights asserted (CC0 1.0) 6 of 18 Legislature USVI · | Committee on Finance pt.3 Okay, so to answer your question in regards to the CSF funds, which is the coronavirus funds, we have expended to date $2,383,825 okay very well the JAG grant so the JAG grant there are several JAG grants we have expended $655,766 of our 2016 JAG 367,621 of the 2017 JAG, 116,463 of the 2019 grant. 0:42:41 Question. With the different year grants, what's the expiration date? If they're presently two minutes. because they have different years different granting amount you know are the different expiration date etc how how does it work because i want so we do have some that may be expiring in september as well as some are expiring um next year and do we have any of those funds in jeopardy any one of them i do believe that the one that is expiring this year an extension has already been um extended to be able to expend those funds further and you see that the one that's expiring this year which month the end of the year those will be expiring in september okay and you have extra extensions yes that's what i just said i'm sorry until which until which year so typically we will ask for a 12-month extension um that does not always mean that we will get the 12 months and and what what is that program in reference to those funds for the jag program of those criminal justice funds okay um what the challenge with it with us um being able to um extend those funds what challenge do you have or do you have any challenges i think senator primarily our challenges oftentimes lie in the available programs at times we also have programs that are not able to meet our reimbursement process a lot of our non-profits have difficulty with that And we are small jurisdictions, so we are working within some of those limitations. 0:43:33 Have you heard of Victims United? Have you done work with them before? I'm sorry? Victims United. I believe we have, yes, sir. Because I don't see the name nowhere here. I know they do a lot of what you're doing in terms of services. They're not a current recipient at this moment. No? They are not at this moment? Have you reached out to them? We have provided information relative to available funding. uh they have not replied okay very well um in respect to your the postal report i saw that there was a 71 000 uh variance um in terms of personal service uh 2022 budget showed 143 000 but then 2023 is 372 000 which is 71 000 less why is that you have a vacancy available something like that time and someone speak to that please at the time that the documents speaking to the mic unless your name state your name before you speak please April Charles director of financial management services so at the time that the documents were submitted to OMB these positions were vacant it is still vacant oh yeah no it's not good to know thank you so much I appreciate your The response is, Mr. Chair, thank you so much for your time. 0:45:12 Thank you. Thank you, Senator Blyden. You said you have received, but you submitted for an extension. Have you received an extension in writing? That process is still, that's still in process, but we have not received a response to that extension request as yet. Okay. And the end date is when? September? end date will be September of 2022. September 30th or September 1st? Yes, I'm sorry, end of the September. Yes, September 30th. Okay. And the 2018 JAG grant, that expires when? 23? 0:46:35 I'll allow Mrs. Kweeke to respond. Good afternoon, Senator. This is Anna Kweeke, Vance Manager. That grant ends September 30 of 2022 also, and an extension is requested. So the 2017 and 2018 expiration date is 9-30-22? Yes, correct. Okay. The VOCA grant, 2018 VOCA grant? 0:47:15 I believe we have an extension received on that grant already. senator allow me or mrs we have it in we have an array good afternoon senator i'm sherry abbott i'm the grant manager for the voca and vowa awards the 2018 voca was extended last year to september 30 2022 there's no additional extension for that one oh and what's that amount left in that account a hundred and six thousand six hundred and seventy And the one right underneath, the VAWA? 0:47:48 What's the expiration date for the one? The VAWA 2018, sir? Yes. The VAWA 2018 was extended to December 30 of this year. What's the balance? nine thousand three hundred and thirteen dollars what's a difficulty in spending the monies with your sub-grantees what are the difficulties well as i stated earlier um relative to our non-profits the awarding is on a reimbursable basis so oftentimes our smaller programs do not meet that they're unable um based on their operating operating cost. Okay. Senator DeGroff, you're recognized. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Good afternoon, colleagues. 0:48:41 Good afternoon, testifiers. Good afternoon, sir. All of you listening and present. How many employees do you have? There are seven of us, sir. Seven? You lost employees? i'm sorry you lost employees we had some um departures in 2021 we had some departures after the hurricane we had departures um in 2019 so you're down to seven we are down to seven magnificent seven we're back up to the magnificent seven because we were at six okay so have any of you received wage increases in a 22 fiscal year before in 20 you're all exempt employees correct yes okay have any of you received wage increases just i think that was 2019 in 2019 yes 2019 okay so going forward in the 23 budget they don't have anything for wage increases for your employees well we're hoping that will change sir because i'm saying you don't budget it you actually took a cut you you you your numbers gone way down well the numbers you're referencing was on account of the vacant positions that were at the beginning of the cycle are you referencing the cut that i mentioned well from where you're asking for for 22 to where you're asking for 23 is a cut yes but we're asking your vacancies is it yeah but we're asking for one minute one minute oh okay try not to talk at the same time because the ricotta can't capture the information 0:49:34 Machine transcript · UNVERIFIED. Verify every quotation against the recording. Speakers are not identified. VI Update · usvipublicrecords.com · public record, no rights asserted (CC0 1.0) 7 of 18 Legislature USVI · | Committee on Finance pt.3 and the ricotta is virtually so speak up um when you're answering the question i apologize sorry yeah like i said i i'm seeing a reduction i'm seeing a reduction general fund uh recommendation of 687 479 to last year from 785 335 both personnel and friends went down in your accent so at the beginning at beginning of the process we had two vacant positions and they weren't they weren't filled so now that they are filled we will be asking for that to be reinstated you're reflecting that that loss there so in the beginning you had two vacancies mean you had five employees now you have the two vacancies filled you have seven yes okay so are they budgeted in the 23 they're budgeted in the 23 however they're not budgeted at the full amount we are asking for that to be reinstated no see i i'm missing because if you brought on two people you'd have to bring them on the full amount so now in the 23 budget they're not budgeted at a full amount that's what get me off how does that work because then how you gonna pay them so we are we are addressing that um senator at the beginning of the budget call process those vacant those positions were vacant and they were filled during the process so we are now working on having those positions two minutes addressed those two positions that you're referencing so they are funded 50 percent it was that was what was recommended um after the budget call process was initiated if it didn't meet by if you didn't fill the position by a certain time frame so they would have been subject to that we are now they're now filled so we're working our way back to get those positions refilled i mean i i i got what you're saying I'm just saying, going forward, to me, it don't seem like you increased to cover those two positions. 0:51:35 It seemed like you decreased in regards to what you originally had. Hold on. Let me hold your time. Yeah, please. Just one minute. Straighten me out, please. What is in front of us is what was sent down by the Office of Management and Budget. Right. They budgeted all vacant positions at 50%. Correct. But since they made that decision, they went ahead and hired two individuals, two vacant, filled two vacancies for this fiscal year. So their request now is that we fund those positions at 100%, that we reinstate the monies that was taken out for those two positions. 0:53:25 They want us to put it back into the budget. No, I got that, but the numbers in the post-added report is saying we're in the 23 budget. right but now we need to correct that okay okay okay again i want to make sure the employees are taken care of that's number one and we appreciate that thank you um now where is lpc located we are still at the nisky center okay we just moved down the hall from our previous location last year okay is there still an outstanding note for uh the island laundry please no we are pleased to say that that has been taken care of taken care of fully good good good good good okay so your your facility that you work out of um how how is that uh i don't think you had capital outglaze to address that i don't think you had are there any needs of anything to make the work environment for your employees the best it could be i think right now at this moment our offices are comfortable um there are some ac issues sometimes um of course that's at the landlord's level um but in terms of the office space it's comfortable for the staff okay good good good that all has covered so right now going forward for the amount of um grants and thing that you you are addressing and you've ramped up two individuals mean you're gonna ramp up and going for more grants is is the intention to fill more vacancies or you've meet your quotas as it stands because to me your numbers are down still well as i stated in the in our testimony we certainly would need additional staffing um we have the program managers that are here are managing more than one grant each of them and the is a level of support that is needed to make sure 0:54:04 that those grants are addressed um that we are in adherence with all of our guidelines making sure that we are monitoring properly and additional staff will assist with that in addition um a financial specialist would also be um of assistance right now we just have one person handling the finances so how many more vacancies do you have we have one vacant but we cert and you just name you just name about six positions that's what i'm saying we need to double we we are a budget here and i i'm trying to to get you to say because time you just to wrap up mr check you've said a lot in what we're trying to accomplish but you have one vacancy so then do you need more personnel to address those positions which is yes yes so then you have to look at how much more vacancies are you talking well as i stated we would definitely be happy with three more positions okay uh a financial specialist and two program monitors funded 100 most definitely okay now i just making sure you you you come to i i try and like you know get it out to you you know and i could see your staff yes to repeat it because i have it in here no but but that's the idea to repeat it to make sure all of my colleagues hear it so when it come to we can address it thank you for the time thank you senator mr chair thank you thank you so much senator the graph which two positions have been filled the two grants manager position which two positions did you fill this fiscal year we filled the federal programs coordinator position and our director of financial management service yes so right there alone you need 0:55:59 an additional 69 000. 69 000 and i believe uh 31 000 in in fringe i believe okay so 69 000 in personnel and then we'll just find 46 of that that that's that's usually the fringe so your next two position that you have here the two grand manager position they're both not filled what are you referencing look at page nine of nine of the post audit report Okay, let me just go up on the top quickly. 0:57:49 Machine transcript · UNVERIFIED. Verify every quotation against the recording. Speakers are not identified. VI Update · usvipublicrecords.com · public record, no rights asserted (CC0 1.0) 8 of 18 Legislature USVI · | Committee on Finance pt.3 The director is filled, the financial specialist is filled? No. That's vacant? That's vacant. But they funded that at 100 percent? Because it was filled at the time that we provided the document. Okay, the two grants manager under that, are they filled? Those are filled, yes. The executive assistant to the director? Also filled. The financial management service director, you just hired that? Yes. 0:58:49 Okay, so we need to increase that to $68,000, correct? Yes, $69,000. $68,000. $68,000, okay. Oh, I'm sorry. The federal programs coordinator, that is now filled? Yes. Yes. So we need to increase that to 70? Yes. Speak into the mic. Yes. Okay. Under the federal funds, the two grant managers position, are they filled? It actually should just be one grant manager. I'm not sure. 0:59:21 It's just one? Yes. Okay. So we just combine that and that will take care of the salary. There's two positions at 50%, so that's one position if it's only one. The salary is 50,000? Yes. yes okay so there are sufficient bunnies there okay so you are shot 69 000 plus fringe yes that's correct yeah but it it's included in the in the budget for the one under the federal grants is include it's included there so they just need for their budget for personal services to be restored correct that's correct senator and also restored for fringe yes okay senator francis you recognize thank you very much mr chair good afternoon to everyone uh good afternoon to director campbell and her supporting cast from lepc um director campbell how long have you been appointed to the position as director um i've been appointed since february of this year february of this year okay congratulations on that thank you um so i know that there was some challenges um that the previous director had discussed with this body in respect to some compliance issue and um and the fact that some of your grants had been put on hold consequential to to those compliance issues. Have all of those issues been resolved? 0:59:52 Senator, if I'm understanding your question, the compliance issues you may be referring to are related to the audit, and those definitely have been resolved. Okay, so there's no longer any restrictions, any hold on any of the grants that's coming to LEPC? not at this time no senator okay so you're clear to receive all the other grants in your testimony you made reference to the issue of status offenders being housed with the criminal offenders have that situation been addressed senator that's an ongoing concern for us and I will allow our compliance monitor to respond to that good day Jacqueline Freeman compliance monitor senator in reference to what you asked we will to some extent continue to experience issues in that area because of the structure of our buildings when we're talking about the police station in st. John and also the location here at zone a where our youths if held I have to go through the same doors as our as our adults in st. John they only based on how their building is structured they are experiencing the same problem so it's an ongoing situation that we are working 1:01:32 with the leadership of vipd to get those things rectified so um miss freeman you know those are age old issue have been around for quite some time um is there a timeline by which we intend to to address that i think also over at the yrc is similarly um faced with the very same issue is there a timeline by which we must be in compliance with that situation two minutes for um for federal partners it's pretty much like now they um it have been going on for too long and we just need to address it and um come into compliance okay i guess we'll talk a little bit offline more about that but i know that that's a matter that really needs to be addressed uh director campbell who who um handles your impress fund and there is what was the original amount in that impress fund the impress fund we're still having some issues relative to that we don't have access to an impress fund at this time um there were some issues relative to the signage and so we are seeking we'll have sought guidance from the department of finance and we are working through that to address that okay and what was the original amount and that goes into the impress fund i'm afraid i don't have that amount senator i hold on once we may we have to provide it to you please very well thank you um and my final question on this particular round is in regards to indirect costs based on the grants that you're administering what is the total or the aggregate amount of indirect costs lpc benefits from your grant 1:03:19 The indirect cost is not applied to any of our grants, Senator. None whatsoever? No sir. You make no money, no money comes for administrative responsibility and oversight of these grants? That is contained within the administrative portions of the grant, not the indirect cost. Okay. How much is the administrative cost? 1:05:17 So administrative costs will depend on the grants. Some grants allot up to 10%, some allot up to 5%. We have one grant that does not allot any admin cost. Time. Very well. Thank you for your responses. My time has been called. I appreciate your response. Thank you very much, and again, good luck on that new assignment. And we stand in support of getting the LEPC up and running. One quick question. um madam mr chair go ahead in regards to the other pc quickly that sounds like a payback senator francis that's that slip of the tongue i'm sorry i told you i'm sorry for this morning sorry though i thought i saw somebody else in the chair no no worries um i i just wanted to ask what is what is the conversation what is being done with the office of gun violence and LEPC can you speak to what is the collaboration what is the synergy um with the office of gun violence the law enforcement planning commission is a partner agency with the office on gun violence as it was instituted within the act that was passed by this body and we are working with that office um 1:05:48 Machine transcript · UNVERIFIED. Verify every quotation against the recording. Speakers are not identified. VI Update · usvipublicrecords.com · public record, no rights asserted (CC0 1.0) 9 of 18 Legislature USVI · | Committee on Finance pt.3 we've attended meetings and we are in efforts to to collaborate on all the issues and initiatives relative to that office. What does that mean in English, Director Campbell? We are on board, Senator. Thank you. It sounds a little bit political, but I'll drill down a little bit more. Thank you, Senator Francis. I think we're just trying to find out if anything is moving in the right direction in reference to the Office of Gun Violence. We are spending in excess of $200,000, and we want to know exactly what is going on. Are there any initiatives coming up? Exactly what is happening in reference to those extra monies that we're putting out. 1:07:16 What level of discussion do you guys have? Just structural, to the point of implementation? There are plans, but I think the best office that would be able to answer that would be the Office on Gun Violence, Senator. Okay. And you have been in this particular position for how long? from February of this year. And from February to now, they can't work out a signatory and a check? What's the issue there? I missed that question. I'm sorry, Senator. From February to now, they're still having issues working out the impress account to change over signatures? 1:07:51 Oh, you're referencing the impress, and you just threw me. I'm sorry. No, impress account. What's the issue? The last time I asked the question about the impress account. We have been asking for guidance, we have asked for guidance and we just need to be able to follow through on that. We have just had some issues with trying to understand the signage. There have been issues between, on the two different administrations relative to the account and so it just has not been accessible. So you have had discussion with the bank? 1:08:26 I believe finance has, I am sorry, I am not clear on that. Thank you Mr. Chair, just a quick question director for the Office of Gun Violence Prevention, what is your role, I know you asked us to ask the director of gun violence prevention, but what's the role that LEPC plays, is it just the financial portion of it, grant support? Actually we do not, we do not, unless they're applying for any grants, but at this point we are a partner agency. That's it. 1:08:57 Thank you, Senator. I'll just say, so what has been the response from finance in reference to your inquiry? I'll have to get back to you on that, Senator, because I have not had any direct conversations. I know that our office has, and we've made some calls to have that address, and we have not at this point. just have to follow through okay i'm calling in the department of finance to resolve this issue that's from february to now the issue need to be resolved we just can't have things that just stand non-resolved that are really not hard issues that's not such a difficult issue to transfer signatures from one to the next a signature should be in it in the director and now who's a financial person i am so what is that among just you should know that how long you been in the position um from january oh you have a whole new crew so you have never been able to access how much is in that account no i have not so um presently though there's 264 dollars and 18 cents in the account okay i guess you need a signature 284 dollars is it 264 We're trying to get petty cash through finance to fund that account. 1:09:32 Okay. Senator Joseph, if you're recognized. Thank you so much, Mr. Chairman, and a pleasant good day to the testifiers and, of course, our listening and viewing audience. I do have some follow-up questions from the previous speaker. to focus on your administrative costs associated with the implementation of your grants. What expenses are absorbed by your administrative costs? So administrative costs may absorb our operation costs that are allowable under the respective grants. Some grants do allow some personnel costs as well. 1:11:02 And that's what I'm getting to. How much of your grant, is any of the administrative costs being used to absorb personnel or fringe benefits? Yes, two of our grants are. Okay, identify which grants and at what amount? It's the VOCA grant, the Victims of Crime grant, and the Violence Against Women grant. Okay, and for the VOCA, how much of that is used for administrative costs? 1:11:45 So the position that's paid is a grant manager's position, and it's split between those two grants. So it's the split of $50,000 and the associated fringe cost. Okay, and so you're saying that one $50,000 for VOCA and then another $50,000... No, the salary is $50,000, and it's split between the two grants. Split $50,000 each, and the associated fringe. 1:12:18 Okay, and the associated fringe. Now, is there any type of match or in-kind in any of those grants? No. None of your grants? No, we're exempt. Okay, you're exempt. Very good. And these positions, this position of grants manager position for VOCA and VAWA, I hope I'm pronouncing that acronym correctly, that isn't being paid out of the general fund. No portion of it. No, sir. none okay and do any of your grants also for the administrative costs cover any portions of your your rent for the facilities no senator okay great my next question is relative to and it's just a follow-up on the previous questions how many how many monies do you have in jeopardy of not being able to expend for the grant performance period i will need to look at that and to also ask if you are what are your marketing strategies because we have a lot of organizations who are 501c3 um who may be eligible to participate but they don't know so it would be great to know if you have a eligibility a listing? What are you doing to market the opportunity to entities to participate? Do you have a website? Well, we are pleased to say that we do. It's freshly off the mint, but we have a website and which will certainly 1:12:51 Machine transcript · UNVERIFIED. Verify every quotation against the recording. Speakers are not identified. VI Update · usvipublicrecords.com · public record, no rights asserted (CC0 1.0) 10 of 18 Legislature USVI · | Committee on Finance pt.3 be able to provide the presence of LEPC to our community and allow them to access the information as well as funding opportunities. And the grant is is available on your website now the grant grant information is available as well as the funding opportunities when they are announced okay and the funding opportunities so we're clear we're speaking english layman terms is the grant application correct grant opportunities okay so you call it grant opportunities is there application there's an application process that they will be submitting to as well okay and so your application just being direct your application is also available on your website and your eligibility and and who will be eligible to apply that all on the website that information is on the website okay great all right so again going back to my other question about how much monies are available i do know you got some additional monies for your PAL that was awarded so congratulations to you and your team for working on those grants now let's go let me just take it step by step let's look at your we talked about your burn let's look at the residential substance abuse treatment and state prisoners grant have you do you have any and I'm looking at page 7 of 9 of the post audit report do you have any grants before 2019 that have not been fully expended grant funds and you're speaking specifically to the the prior to the our our fat okay mrs. creaky could you respond to that time what what page are you referring to 1:14:43 Senator, I'm sorry. Page 7 of 9 of the post audit report, page 7 of 9. Good afternoon. This is Anna Quickey, Grants Manager for the RSAT program right now, we're actually getting ready to award them in the amount of 99, let me get it correct. And that's from the 2018 Arts Act. 1:16:38 So, and when does that, because these look like what, three, three-year, is it usually three-year grants you have, or two, or four-year grants? No, it's a four-year. It's a four-year grant, so you have one that's in 2018, that's your oldest? Yes. Okay, and when is it set to expire? And what was the funding level? This particular one. Okay, my time has already been called, but on the chair's time, kindly indicate your expiration on your 2018 grant for the RSAC and how much has been expended. First I need to know the amount you received and how much has been expended to date and also when is the expiration date of this grant. 1:17:19 Thank you so much Mr. Chairman, while I await the response from the testifiers. Thank you Senator Joseph, you have the expiration? expiration date on that grant is 9 30 2022. 9 30 2022 yes and the remaining balance 108 999 dollars okay thank you so much senator saru do you recognize thank you mr chen good afternoon again um the balances are kind of high in the grants that we have the guns that you have and every time you open a consortium in a newspaper you see a victim of domestic violence who ain't getting beat for a cat in a house and one hijacking the next it's really sad to read so there's an absolute need in the territory for support for women who have endured domestic violence so for also for me probably I'm a little worried about the balances and and how how are utilizing in a Senate we need to touch things and it has to be tangible how we do is appropriate you have grants you manage them and you're not seeing that dent in a community as to where it's needed the same with gun violence prevention we pass a whole legislation I didn't vote for it because I thought it was more bureaucracy and then today you don't really have an answer for me you know and gun violence and that's no fault of your own it was really a duplicate of it was more bureaucracy so I guess the 1:18:23 question I want to first ask I have sticky notes everywhere let's start on page 9 of your testimony your what's in the post added directly contradicts page page 9. It says your office is operated with a fiscal staff of one strong, but we cannot continue to function in this manner. And then you go down to the latter part of your paragraph and it says each of our grant managers are responsible for two or more grants as a state administering agency. These positions are indeed critical to blah, blah, blah. And then you said that this current year LEPC experienced challenges meeting some operational costs which affected basic needs such as inter-island travel, vehicle maintenance, repairs, and incidentals. So if you go to a post-added report right now, you have a massive cut in every area. So I need to know what is your ask? 1:20:13 Now a post-added send down, but what is the ask of this body so you could function at an optimal level? What is your desired ask in your personal services? So, as to pretty much mirror what you cited on page nine would be funding for staffing. We... Mike. Mike. Oh, I'm sorry. Is that better? Okay. So, to piggyback, pretty much what is repeated on page nine. Funding for staffing. We are presently in need of program managers. 1:21:07 So hold on. I know what you're in need of. I'm asking for a number. 2022 you had 443834 this recommendation says 372834 what do you need what do you need what's your number I need a number I need the same thing for you so the program monitors that two minutes identified would have been at the salary range of 48,000 a program manager for the program monitors Oh, monitor. And, of course, the associated fringe. And that's two? 1:21:45 The financial specialist. So hold a second, sir. That's two positions, correct? That's two program monitor positions. Fringe at 46% or 48%. And then an additional... Oh, oh, I'm sorry. What's your fringe at? No, I ain't cutting you off, director. 48% or 46%. I think it's at 46%. 46%. Okay. Go ahead. So this is an addition to what you have now. And in addition, the 1:22:19 Machine transcript · UNVERIFIED. Verify every quotation against the recording. Speakers are not identified. VI Update · usvipublicrecords.com · public record, no rights asserted (CC0 1.0) 11 of 18 Legislature USVI · | Committee on Finance pt.3 financial specialist position. What is that salary? $50,683.65. Is that in a budget? Or that's what you need? We actually need two financial specialists. Right now, we have one vacant position. And we actually had two, but one was removed last year because it was vacant so the 248k for the program monitoring and the financial specialist two at 50k is that included in the budget now just one okay good let's talk about your capital outlays the reduction is that do you need your $30,000 back I think we do because we're still not able to get which is the vehicle. And your vehicle will be for St. Croix? St. Thomas. St. Thomas. Oh, you don't have a vehicle in this district? We have one vehicle that's being used by the director as her assigned vehicle. Okay. And office needs. And office needs. You know, because I really get frustrated every time somebody comes down here and tells me, oh, this is good. And then midway through the fiscal year, you're hearing, we don't have this and we don't have that. Blame the Senate when we're saying what are your needs what what do you need to survive now let's look at another vehicle on St. Croix and go ahead time no I said we could pitch another vehicle on St. Croix anybody give you a Tesla we need one a Tesla could go ready when the staff travels to St. Croix we won't have to use the loan of vehicles that we've been using okay now let's head back here the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice grant page 13 says lie enforcement efforts to prevent and of course hiring additional personnel have you hired any officers on this grant can you based on your testimony the the 1:22:52 monies can fund personnel the applications that have come in have not supported that it hasn't been more of the training initiatives law enforcement related equipment so as it does it can support personnel in the application yes so over the years you could support like a cohort of like maybe ten additional officers on this grant I just think give me a random number maybe not that large of a cohort senator okay okay and then lastly PSN continues project safe neighborhood and I saw the communities that you were looking at what would be how do you determine the neighborhoods it has to be a neighborhood applying for a grant I'll allow miss Freeman to respond to you Jacqueline Freeman yes and fiscal person so what they do is based on the statistics that comes in through VIPD where you have high crimes and so forth that's how they determine so who are those neighborhoods can you list them so right now the targeted area was Carwin Terrace Bovone is who they started out with initially and they also have as well Harris Court and Pearson got it on St. 1:24:57 And on St. Croix, I am not too sure as to who have been identified in the St. Croix district. So does it have to be a public housing community or can it be enabled because Castle Coakley is a problem. Okay. Thank you for providing that. We have a lot of neighbourhoods that are crime riddled and have a lot happening in them. I don't see them on that list. I don't know how well the data is, but Mr. Chair, this grant, the JAG grant, does support personnel for the VIPD as well, and I don't think you caught that, so I just wanted to let you know that. Thank you for the latitude, Mr. Chair. 1:26:19 Thank you, Senator Saro. Does any of the grants address behavioral health or support behavioral health? The JAG grant can support behavioral health, but it must also be related to a criminal nexus. It must be related to a criminal? It must have a criminal nexus. Okay. So Bureau of Corrections could utilize a grant like this? Certainly. They have been recipients of the funds. Have they applied for any of the funds recently? 1:27:04 We noted that they have two applications that are pending to that agency, sir. Okay. You have only one position under your federal funds, but your FY22 budget included $184,000. You had more positions? Page three of nine. Is that in your post audit you're referencing? Yes. We're not sure how that number was derived. It came to us from the Office of Management and Budget. We didn't pull the one out of this guy. 1:27:38 We only have one federal-funded position, Senator. Okay, so let me go to the 23 recommendation. Are you then saying that your 23 recommendation on the federal funds is $50,000? So personal? Yes, it should be $50,000. Okay, but no matter what your grant, the grants that you're going to receive is $4,328,000 for fiscal year 23? Is that number right? I don't think it is, Senator. 1:28:10 I believe that fiscal 2023 number may be bearing the CSF award, which may not necessarily be an award that we may be seeing at that level if it does repeat itself. So it should definitely be less than that. Because the year before, they had $5,452,826, that number is right, for this fiscal year? No. 1:28:48 More than likely it included that CSF award, sir. Okay. Is Senator Carrionge recognized? thank you mr. chair and good afternoon to the team LEPC and to you director Campbell how are you I'm well sir thank you for asking and good afternoon to you good I'm glad you're well I I think I share the same sentiments of my colleagues you know we have a budget here before us where we are seeing a decreased from was allotted to you last year um but nevertheless we hear in your testimony the challenges that you have and your challenges clearly have to do with funding and staffing which again goes to funding so it's a a bit puzzling i guess to you know, receive your testimony and see that there is a decrease in what it's being presented for this, for FY23. What do you have to say with regard to that, Director? 1:29:18 Machine transcript · UNVERIFIED. Verify every quotation against the recording. Speakers are not identified. VI Update · usvipublicrecords.com · public record, no rights asserted (CC0 1.0) 12 of 18 Legislature USVI · | Committee on Finance pt.3 We've noted that this, the decrease as well, Senator, and we certainly would love to see that number a lot higher to be able to make sure that we have the right amount of staffing to ensure that the work that we need to do gets done in the manner that it should be. The staff that's here is doing a tremendous job, I'm not going to deny that, but it is taxing or we do need to have additional support within the office. Are you projecting that the federal assistance through the grants that you receive will increase in FY23? I'm not projecting a giant increase because these are formula grants and they're based on the population size and you will you may be aware that our unofficial census 2020 census does have us at a much smaller population size than before so it may stand to reason that our numbers might actually be less when we are awarded we normally will utilize the base amount that our program offices indicate and some of them are around six hundred thousand dollars it could be less it could be slightly more agreed up so was this budget then prepared in absence of your input from your office I'm sorry I didn't get that question sir was this budget prepared in absence of input from your office the budget which budget you're referring to what you've seen in your post audit yes no recommendation that came down i guess from omb which is we risk has a decrease we responded to the budget process like every other agency senator gotcha um so i know my colleague that spoke my colleague from st thomas spoke before i did and it was one of the questions that i have here um what's what's what's your ask exactly what quantitative what number figure for you to operate at a standard level in the perfect 1:30:39 scenario what do you need what do you need from us so in addition to what i've repeated prior dollar amount wise i can certainly present that staffing positions i can tell you we need monitors we we need an additional fiscal person we are tasked with the management of federal dollars and we certainly want to make sure that we are doing that in a very prudent manner and adherent we have managed to raise ourselves out of being under an audit for a few years and we've been doing really well and we need to be able to maintain that we want to maintain that having the additional staff and support will certainly ensure that and it will provide some much needed relief to my staff that's been really really well there's no doubt we want you to be successful and in order to do so you clearly enumerated what what you need and then your testimony is you do say a significant boost to the FY 2023 budget would allow LAPC to maintain our grant managers and secured three much needed positions and to carry out your operations so it's clear that you are facing some challenges and you need staff and funding in order to um be successful and not continue to have those challenges that you've been faced uh that you've been managing um so we are um that's the reason why you're here and this committee is open to hear what your recommendation is but we need that clear information so um please do submit that through the chair so that in markup we could make those determinations um i will certainly do that senator 1:32:46 thank you thank you um any funding you have provided for the office of gun violence i'm sorry senate senator have you provided any grant any funding to the office of gun violence no senator is there any uh grant that they can apply to to receive some funding they've we do have the jag assistance grant as well as the victims of crime grant has there been any conversations uh from that office it's director with you to regards regards to what grants might be available for the office of gun violence to apply to we've had those conversations um initial conversations um senator but nothing has begun yet regards to the application process we are hopeful that we'll be seeing something but we have had those initial conversations and the information has been shared so your office have been providing that support yes sir all right i'm glad to hear that um you presented in your appendix uh the lists of grants that are active uh the ward listing um are these like actual numbers time are you you're referring to our appendix senator yeah because in your appendix And looking at what's been presented in the post-audit report, it's hard for us to determine what balances do you have for each one of these grants. So I don't know if there's anywhere in your testimony or in the post-audit where it clearly lists the grants and what actuals, what balances do you have for each one? 1:34:36 So we don't have that in the testimony, Senator, we can certainly provide it to you. These are grants that are awarded by different fiscal years, so we'll definitely be providing that information based by the fiscal years as opposed to a cumulative amount. Yeah, can you please submit that through the Chair? But even though they're, like you said, they're awarded a different fiscal year, but nevertheless they roll over correct they're still current because they have expiration date some of them are three years or four years correct correct okay so as you continue to receive them every year the amount continues to accumulate no the amount that you receive each year does not accumulate what you receive in 2017 that was what was received for fiscal year 2017. when we apply for the the the following year that gets awarded a different amount okay okay yeah if you could provide to us your time has just been giving you some um i'm timing now so i call it at five minutes and it's now seven but rap you could go ahead and conclude no problem a problem so if you could provide that to us thank you mr chair for leniency and directly if you could provide that to us so that we could know uh in each uh federal grant that you receive what do you have um available uh thank you very much mr chair thank you so much senator carrion and colleagues as we are moving on i will be saying time because my staff just had to fly back to st croix so um work with me um but miss camel i think what what he's trying to know is we know that it's separate amount for each award year but he just want to know the 1:36:40 Machine transcript · UNVERIFIED. Verify every quotation against the recording. Speakers are not identified. VI Update · usvipublicrecords.com · public record, no rights asserted (CC0 1.0) 13 of 18 Legislature USVI · | Committee on Finance pt.3 cumulative amount that is left back for that particular category you could give us in both you could give us what is left of left back by year and then you could give us the cumulative amount and I think what the senators are driving at is that we heard that the 2017 JAG grant that is the one that they denied an extension, correct? That's the one you requested? 1:38:30 We requested an extension. An extension was requested. They have not responded to that as yet. And that is both for the 2017 and the 2018. And the 2018. Those are both due to expire in September. And in those amount, we had like 100,000 plus in each. Correct? Yes. Okay, so that's why the recommendation was, since we funded the officer gun violence, and they could put some money up that they should immediately apply for those grants so that those monies don't go back in the event that we are denied the extension. Because I think we funded them, what, 500,000 colleagues? So they have some money there that they could use as seed money to start some programs and then seek the reimbursement rather than those monies going back, which would then increase the budget to the Office of Gun Violence. So, if you could have that particular discussion, I think that's where they're trying to go. Duly noted. 1:38:58 Thank you. Senator Joseph Schott. Thank you so much, Mr. Chairman. Are all of these grants reimbursable? Yes, they are, Senator. Okay, thank you. Thank you. That was nice and short. Thank you, Mr. Chair, and good afternoon to all. Let me first ask, and congratulations to you on your appointment. Just last week I found myself asking, but who's heading up LEPC now? So glad to know we have someone there. 1:39:54 What's the process for the community groups to apply for funding via your agency? So, for the most part, all of the potential programs need to submit an award, I'm sorry, an application. They may vary slightly by programs, but the essence is the same, non-profit programs must submit certain information relative to their status, they must be able to demonstrate that they have a financially sound system to be able to manage these federal dollars, and they must also be able to speak to the scope of the program that they're applying to. 1:40:39 All applicants are informed that it's a reimbursable process. I'm sorry, I missed that. Any of these are done through a PSA, public service announcements? Definitely. We've employed the use of the media. We've also, you know, for our current and active subgrantees, we usually also send them almost like a courtesy notice. that we'll be having funding um available and i'm not sure if you were on when we shared that we actually just launched our um website so we will definitely be able to reach more um through our website in terms of the funding opportunities that are available thank you because i was just about to ask that we step up the PSA's not everyone goes to the internet to do research but some do listen to the radio and whatnot so we could increase those now I see here you spoke about the statutory responsibility of your agency which is providing policy advice and guidance to the governor and established to be the state planning agency for the criminal justice system in the territory uh you also stated that the responsibility encompasses assisting with the development of policies crime prevention and violence reduction plans addressing juvenile delinquency and victims of crime programs etc so i wanted to ask you have you uh spoken to any of our law enforcement agencies regarding a deployment plan strategy or policy whatever they want to call it but as you know there's a shortage nationwide however as i review some of the operations stats of various agencies to include the virgin house police department looking at the manpower i don't see where there's any policies or 1:41:16 plans being put in place regarding deployment have you had any conversations with them on a deployment strategy plan or policy whatever you want to call it not to date senator not referencing a deployment policy no thank you now the um let me go straight to this uh juvenile justice and delinquency prevention now you said this grant requires the establishment of juvenile justice state advisory group board whose primary function is to review the state of the juvenile justice system and advise the governor and the legislature and the key stakeholders with recommendations is this group or board active it most definitely is senator we have 17 members on that board that have engaged in continuous meetings and they are definitely forging their way to address the requirements underneath that particular grant program and I could allow some further information if you need from Ms. Freeman not at this time and you also stated that the LEPC is also tasked with monitoring jails detention centers or detention facilities and other facilities to ensure compliance with the four core requirements of the jjdp act now this requires that status offenders are not held in secure detention or confinement are you conducting inspections at the youth rehabilitation center on saint croix where we have uh non-criminal offenders uh their house with those that are charged with crimes we as as we stated we are tasked with that responsibility and so the monitoring does take place but i'll allow miss freeman to expand on that for you uh jacqueline freeman uh compliance 1:43:30 monitor yes we are working aggressively with human services in reference to those areas that you noted we continue to address the compliance issues that they they are having and a plan have been put into place we have also just identified training for the individuals that are staffed there to make sure that some of these compliance issues are being met Thank you for that. Hopefully in the appropriate committee of jurisdiction, we'll be able to dive into this discussion. And lastly, what about St. Thomas? There's nowhere, when a juvenile offender is picked up or detained for a crime, what are they 1:45:39 Machine transcript · UNVERIFIED. Verify every quotation against the recording. Speakers are not identified. VI Update · usvipublicrecords.com · public record, no rights asserted (CC0 1.0) 14 of 18 Legislature USVI · | Committee on Finance pt.3 doing with those juvenile offenders right now? Senator, in instances where those juveniles will need to go over to St. Croix, an extension can be granted for an extended period of time. However, at this time, Human Services is also looking to identify areas where those juveniles can be housed. Thank you, Mr. Chair, for the latitude. Thank you, Senator. There are no group homes in St. Thomas, right? There are no group homes in St. Thomas, Senator. However, there are areas that we are looking at to utilize in the near future. Okay. 1:46:53 senator jmz recognize but good afternoon to the people of the u.s virgin islands good afternoon testifiers i see here in 2022 you had appropriated funds and non-appropriated funds when it comes to capital outlays and i based on the fy 2022 recommendations you have zero so i'm assuming that you expended thirty thousand dollars and one hundred and twenty three thousand five hundred and seventy one dollars if you can just tell this committee what you were able to utilize those funds as far as capital outlays could you tell us what page you're referencing senator please senator please in the post-addy report page three of nine you have capital outlays for appropriated funds and capital outlays for non-appropriated funds in the fy 2023 recommendations you have zero for both of those categories but i saw in fy 2022 you had appropriated funds i just want you to place on the record what you're able to do with those funds as far as capital outlays um the appropriated funds of thirty thousand dollars was to purchase a vehicle that we're still not able to purchase as yet we're still working on getting the funding for that and the other category which is non-appropriated funds one hundred and 23 571 dollars i am not sure what that is for okay so we only had 30 000 appropriated in fiscal year 2022. 1:47:27 okay so it's in the portal so at a later time i guess you can um let us know what that is about and as far as your different grants i see you have what about 4.3 million dollars in federal grants and i know our commissioner that we have right now commissioner ray martinez is now the commissioner for vipd ever since you came on board have you met with former well the commissioner regarding um a transition and some of the things that were working for him and how you can improve on it when it comes to our federal grants we've had discussions um senator but it was not necessarily a formal meeting, and we've definitely, I've been with the agency prior, so I have some knowledge of some of the items that we were working on before as well. 1:49:19 Okay, understood, and thank you for placing that on the record. When it comes to VI Project Safe Neighborhood, I find that to be very low, and I know that is based on what you do receive, that's $53,857. What are you doing with those funds? and if you answer that before I apologize I was not on the floor. Jacqueline Freeman, Project Safe Neighborhoods. Right now Project Safe Neighborhoods through the U.S. Attorney's Office will be utilizing those funds to go directly into the communities. They have already started working on some of the various initiatives in addition to working with VIPD in reference to gun violence. Without saying much information because I know you want to control the narrative what you said initiatives that is very vague and broad can you just elaborate give us an idea of what initiatives? So for right now they are working on a sip and paint initiative where they'll be working within the various housing communities where they'll be bringing out the residents to draw or bring awareness through painting as to where they're at they will be collaborating with folks like victim advocates to come up and speak with them it's a project that is new but it's something that they feel will enhance the communication between vipd law enforcement and the communities they also were responsible for running a summer uh program they collaborate with a lot of the various agencies uh grassroots organizations out there to enhance their um to enhance their initiatives i will be reaching out to you at a later time because i do have a lot of years when it comes to the VI project safe neighborhood I know the Virgin Alice housing authority they have a lot of recreational centers that are not utilized and those are areas where we need to start as far as getting into our neighborhoods and I think I'm not sure if my my time was caught but I would 1:50:11 keep going until the chair stops me as far as I see you don't have any outstanding vendor payments that is always a good thing um i know when you submitted this this information to post audit it was based on what was the current situation at the time but do you have outstanding outstanding vendor payments ever since this post audit report information was received to us um yes just the rent for um july and august because we were going through the renewal process for the lease okay i don't want to abuse my time and i know um my my colleague have to get back to saint croix but um we have a lot of things that can that we can do i will not place that on the record i i always um would warn my colleagues to never mention the strategy when it comes to crime combating crime on the senate floor i think that should be done in person so at a later time i plan to meet with you i have some ideas thank you mr chair for the time thank you so much senator james in reference to the 30 000 if you don't spend that money with september 30 it is gone back to the general fund but you're saying that the vendor refused to decrease the price he he reduced it by nine hundred and eighty dollars i asked again and he refused to go any further what was the original price thirty one thousand nine hundred and eighty dollars can you look for a next vendor or look to see if there were any vehicles that you could get for thirty thousand or less what were you looking for it's uh it's an equinox um a twenty twenty two another vehicle you could get for thirty thousand and use the money Because it doesn't make sense for the money to go back. 1:52:33 Machine transcript · UNVERIFIED. Verify every quotation against the recording. Speakers are not identified. VI Update · usvipublicrecords.com · public record, no rights asserted (CC0 1.0) 15 of 18 Legislature USVI · | Committee on Finance pt.3 And there are cars that are under $30,000, it might not be an Equinox, but you could get a very decent car for $30,000 or less, rather than letting the money go back and then you have zero dollars in that category for next fiscal year. Well, it's definitely a point of consideration, so thank you, Senator, definitely. Don't let it be a point of consideration. spend it. We gave it so you could have a vehicle. So having, you might not get an Equinox, but you'll have a car, a sedan or something that you could drive. So you have to obligate the money by September 30th because it's gone after that. And your small entity budget has been reduced by $94,000. We are going to reinstate the personnel because we've already hired those individuals. So So we're going to reinstate the personnel and the fringe. But I would suggest that you try and get a car that is $30,000 or less so you could spend those monies and you'll have to hack on that pretty quickly so they can go through the process. 1:54:31 Thank you, Senator. Senator Whitaker. As a point of inquiry, Senator Joseph. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My point of inquiry was relative to the same matter that Mr. Chairman brought up with the vehicle. Can you not utilize some of your grant fund as to leverage any of that to purchase? No. 1:55:37 Okay. That's a short answer, right? And a long answer. Senator Whitaker. Thank you for the long answer, Senator. Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman, good afternoon colleagues, good afternoon to central staff, listening and viewing audience, and a special afternoon to our testifiers. I first off want to say to you, Director Campbell, and your team, because of course I've already engaged LEPC well before this hearing, as well as the Office of Gun Violence Prevention. for me i just wanted to kind of zone in on a particular area particularly as it pertains to juvenile justice um i want to also thank ms freeman and all the others who i've directly engaged with who's on the panel the leadership team i want to really zone in on a really important fact so are you familiar as you've come on board and also i'll congratulate you for your assuming that position so we're in title 3 section 261 subsection e particularly subsection e1 And I'm highlighting this section because one of the most important things as we go through the budget process and address issues is the planning process. Do you in fact have a, currently have an actual criminal justice plan that is supposed to be done on behalf of the governor in collaboration with your office? Do we have an actual criminal justice plan, an old plan to work with or one that you are working with? And what would be the costs, if anything, you've already done cost, calculations for that cost so to respond to you senator we are have worked on we began to work on on a plan and what we've also done is also done plans particularly under each of our grant programs that require the plan so we are working to merge so that we speak to the collaborative efforts on the each of the grants also as it supports any type of policy advisement to to the governor so we are actually working on on a plan in addition to that the state advisory group also works towards that and they're also engaging in that now that they we have a full complement of a SAG board that would definitely speak more so to the juvenile 1:56:03 justice aspects um within the territory and what is the timeline and would you be providing a timeline to this committee to the money on finance and to the legislature what would be the estimated timeline for us to receive this plan or draft plan um i'm sorry i i the timeline for us definitely would not be until we are we are aiming for the upcoming fiscal year within the the upcoming fiscal year to be able to initiate a draft of that plan. We are waiting first to get approval of the plans that we've already submitted for a program so we won't be able to speak until we've received approval of those plans. 1:58:33 And are you also familiar with Title III, Section 67, which requires that the Finance Committee, this current committee, along with the Governor, in order for you to be approved for any federal programs, that in fact there has to be a meeting of the minds in respect to these federal grants are we moving pursuant to the law i do believe we are senator okay and i ask these questions because a lot of times what what i feel that if more and more of the departments and agencies move forward with what our statues outlines we as a legislature also in collaboration because even now before even throughout this hearing process and throughout the budget process i really would like us to get more into some work sessions these hearings are important and they have we have to have these hearings but i would like for us to get into some work sessions so to engage with you and engage with the leadership team previously the office of gun violence i'm encircling folks up because there's a lot of silos and works of folks are working hard but a lot of silos the other item i want to bring out is the move um the the actual model for juvenile justice do you or anybody in your leadership team have any experience with the youth court system that is a bill that i have crafted and i'm moving forward with for us to actually have a youth court system of the virgin islands are anybody in the team familiar with it in the context of juvenile justice um prevention um prevention of crime no senator i really one of the things i want to suggest that we do we do as as we work together look at some of the various models for juvenile justice and prevention a lot of on the issues with yrc is that our children are getting labeled really too early um many of them you know yrc is obviously not the solution it's a it's it's a part of the ecosystem we have right now but i've spoken to engage your team over that a former director i've also engaged commissioner martinez and others and certainly our judges we we really need to develop that system we have to work out the prevention mechanisms it's the truancy it's the lower level of offenses and we have to stop stigmatizing our 1:59:15 Machine transcript · UNVERIFIED. Verify every quotation against the recording. Speakers are not identified. VI Update · usvipublicrecords.com · public record, no rights asserted (CC0 1.0) 16 of 18 Legislature USVI · | Committee on Finance pt.3 youth too young and the youth court model actually involves not moving away from stigmatizing our youth so that they have a better future and pathway i'm committed to that and i will be reaching out and circling back actually to lpc and me and my staff and we move forward and with my colleagues support we can have an actual true juvenile justice model so i thank you for your testimony but i will be following up and i really do encourage that we move into some work sessions if we're going to really address crime prevention thank you chairman and thank you for the time thank you senator whitaker for your testimony uh so mrs camp for your questions for your questions Colleagues, I'm going to conclude just now. Anyone has any more questions? 2:01:35 Go ahead, Senator Joseph, point of inquiry. Thank you. Thank you so much, Mr. Chairman. I wanted to know how long does it take a vendor, well, not your vendor, your sub-grantee to receive their monies once they submit their invoice to LEPC. What's your turnaround time? I would say 10 days, depending on whether we need more information from them. 2:02:18 That's good. Go ahead and put it on the record. You said respond what you said. That's a very good rate. usually it's usually 30 days before they get the check in hand um in some instances that i am aware of but you're you're representing that 10 days once they submit their uh information their invoices you would pay them within 10 days that's very good so that's very encouraging for non-profits to know that once they they send out they spend the money they'll get it back quickly thank you Thank you so much. Senator Saro, point of information? 2:02:52 Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just a point of information. I'm a little bothered by the car discussion because property requirements set before this body a few days ago with this massive car fleet. We had Acuras from the Tachikara settlement. Then we have a whole slew of Teslas that came in, and I cannot fathom why a small agency like LEPC cannot be given a car through property and procurement. It is really baffling to me. Have you asked property and procurement for a vehicle? We have asked in the past when we initially, of course, came into the office and only had one vehicle. Of recent, no, Senator. Please ask. They have a slew of vehicles. 2:03:37 Thank you for the time, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Senator Siron. I think they're getting ready to auction 250 vehicles within the next couple weeks. Vehicles that they have taken offline. Some might be in pretty decent condition. Perhaps you could get one for St. Thomas and one for St. Croix until we're able to provide sufficient funding for you to be able to really run your office. We can speak to Commissioner Thomas on that. Senator Carrion, do you have any questions? 2:04:23 I'm good. Senator Carrion, mic? Okay. Give your hand up. Okay, none. Senator Gittins, you're good? Okay. Colleagues, we have exhausted all of our questions. I'm going to give the Director an opportunity to put a closing statement on the record. Director, you may put a short closing statement on the record. Thank you. But in all honesty, I want to thank you for this opportunity to have my staff and myself before you to present our budget. And again, I want to definitely be able to thank my staff. You know, as I stated before, we are small, and I oftentimes sometimes have to kind of send little texts to folks that don't get off, stop working beyond five o'clock. So we are a very dedicated team. We definitely want to see the best for this community, and we just look forward to the support that we're going to get from the legislature. 2:05:00 Thanks again. Good afternoon, all. Thank you so much for your testimony today, and thank those individuals who supported you in answering. The questions I want, I forgot to put one thing on the record and Senator Blight didn't mention it. A lot of the nonprofits that this body has allocated monies to are not receiving their monies. So that limits their ability to utilize those money up front and then ask for reimbursement. Because a lot of the community organizations that are dealing with these type of activities, domestic violence, crime reduction, et cetera, This is now August, and they still have not received their funding to include a number of other nonprofits across the territory. These are the information that we're getting. We do know that there are more than sufficient funds to be able to fund all the nonprofits that were included in the budget, and you can't on your own refuse to fund what the legislature has passed. So you can't just say I'm not going to fund clean. So Frederick said $40,000. Victims United, how much did we give them? $50,000. You can't just say I'm not funding them and then you come back to the legislature and you say we have a surplus and we're going to reappropriate the money to do something else. You've got to fund everything in the budget and then whatever is left over, then we can have a supplemental. So I just want to put that on the record. I also want to put on the record there was a recent veto of $15 million to pay garbage haulers and those companies that deal with sewage claiming that the monies were coming from the septage fund. It was not coming from the septage funds. 2:06:05 It was an increase in waste management authority, 2022 budget, to pay garbage haulers that have been owed monies for five years. It was vetoed, but there are other legislation coming down in the same manner that that was written to pay other stuff. So colleagues, I'm going to be encouraging and asking you to join me in overriding that particular veto. These are monies that have been owed for an extended period of time, and also to join the Finance Committee in making sure that all those non-profits that have submitted all the requisite paperwork have done everything the right way, that they be funded before September 30th. The non-profits take care of areas that the government does not on a regular basis. So 2:07:56 Machine transcript · UNVERIFIED. Verify every quotation against the recording. Speakers are not identified. VI Update · usvipublicrecords.com · public record, no rights asserted (CC0 1.0) 17 of 18 Legislature USVI · | Committee on Finance pt.3 we've got to make sure that we make them whole. Because the end result is that we send back millions of dollars. And now we really can't blame LEPC. We can't blame the non-profit because the government that allocated the money, the legislature, the administration refused to release those monies. And I'm saying refused because some of them are old, didn't receive any monies last year, and now the same year, the next fiscal year is the same story again. and some we are just literally begging to fund. The Committee of Finance is here by adjourn. Thank you. 2:09:16 People named in this transcript SUSPECTED, and a finding aid only. Names were matched by machine against the spellings used across all 426 of our transcripts, and the title is the one used in the room. Being named here is NOT evidence that a person attended or spoke · only that the name was said. Speech recognition mishears names, so a spelling may be wrong even where no alternative is offered. 5x Senator Carla Joseph the surname alone also matches: Clifford Joseph; Karla J. Joseph heard in this transcript as: Joseph 3x Senator Genevieve R. Whitaker heard in this transcript as: Whitaker 3x Senator Janelle K. Saro heard in this transcript as: Saro 3x Senator Samuel Carrion heard in this transcript as: Carrion 2x Senator Dwayne DeGraff heard in this transcript as: DeGroff 2x Senator Kenneth L. Gittens heard in this transcript as: Gittins 2x Senator Marvin Blyden heard in this transcript as: Blyden 2x Senator Novelle Francis heard in this transcript as: Francis 1x Senator Athneil 'Bobby' Thomas heard in this transcript as: Thomas Machine transcript · UNVERIFIED. Verify every quotation against the recording. Speakers are not identified. VI Update · usvipublicrecords.com · public record, no rights asserted (CC0 1.0) 18 of 18